On Thursday afternoon, the deadline for NHL teams to sign former NCAA players (who had just graduated in the Spring) to entry-level contracts passed. As it turns out, the deadline came and went without any news on the Jeremy Price front; this means one of two things: the Canucks decided not to offer him a deal, or he simply chose not to sign. EIther way, this means that the organization has parted ways with their former 4th rounder.

Apparently the.. (wait for it).. (wait for it).. pricewasn't right.

Read on for more on the situation, and Price himself.

I fully realize that even Jeff Marek probably thinks I'm late on this news, but I wanted to make sure that I had all my of my information verified before posting this. I got in touch with Chris Peters, of The United States of Hockey who had the following things to say:

"Any player who either chose not to sign or wasn't offered a contract, is four years removed from his draft day, and is no longer a bona fide college student by Aug. 15 becomes a UFA. Based on whose left out there, I don't think many of them, if any, with the exception of maybe Wade Megan will get signed to a UFA deal. Not a lot worth snapping up. I'm not overly familiar with Price's situation, but as far as I know based on his age and playing status, since he was not signed, he is now a UFA (he can't re-enter the draft)."

I don't think that too many fans of the team are going to let this news ruin their weekend, but I figured it was worth bringing to your attention. Last summer, we ranked the 113th overall pick in '09 as the 18th best prospect in the system. He registered 76 points in 149 career games at Colgate, and while he didn't wow anyone, he seemed to be coming along nicely.

By all accounts he's a reliable defenseman in his own zone who is more than capable of moving the puck. I wouldn't be all that surprised if his name resurfaced in the coming years, whether it was at the AHL level, or potentially in the NHL one day.

If anything, though, the biggest shame is that we'll now be deprived of the all of the potential punny headlines involving his last name. At least Jeff Angus got it out of his system while he still could.

Dimitri Filipovic writes about hockey on the internet, and is the Managing Editor of Canucks Army. You can follow him on Twitter @DimFilipovic, and email him at dimitri.filipovic@gmail.com.

It is interesting in the fact that the Canicks have their own AHL franchise. Why wouldn't you fill a roster spot with a guy that you used a 4 th round pick? Just another waste of a 2-4th round pick in my eyes.